Entry Numero Uno

“The Boys of Summer” – The Ataris

            Before I knew it, the last summer of the Garcia girls had arrived and just like the prior years we were once again being sent back to the island.  “The night before the trip, we sisters stayed up late packing and gabbing” (111).  It was our tradition so to speak, the four of us would sit in Carla’s room because she is the oldest and we would spend the hours talking about our Dominican family. 

I remember slipping away from the girls for a while to call my boyfriend who happened to “live in Palo Alto” (113).  For once I refused to care about the possibility of getting in trouble with mother for the phone bill expenses.  It seemed like I cared about someone just as much or equal to the amount to the love I held for my sisters.  I loved my sisters dearly, but when it came to my boyfriend it was a close tie.  They knew I loved him, especially Fifi.  Sofia understood why I chose to hang out with him during the school year rather than other girl friends.

This summer was different though.  I could feel it when I heard his voice on the phone that night; I knew that I was getting older which meant no more controlled trips to the Dominican.  Summer was a time of freedom, but how great was our freedom when we weren’t able to spend it with someone we hold close to our heart?  Our relationship was different than other fickle high school relationships.  I think this was the reason that Mami didn’t understand why we girls put up such a fight when it came close to the “Great Sending Off.” I remember thinking that the Dominican Republic was no longer home for me.  Neither was it home for Carla, Sofia, or Yolanda.  Our hearts belonged to America and the possibilities it held for Señoritas like us. Occasionally Sofia would have this hope of going back to the Island just to see whether she really missed it, but I was “afraid that Fifi” would not return the same girl, but instead turn “into some nice third-world girl” (118).  It’s not that we didn’t love our family we just didn’t want to go back to the way things were.  We had come to love who we were and who we were going to be, so why go back to a place that would only hold us back?

“Dream On” – Aerosmith

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